Azernews.Az

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) intends to support the development of non-cash payments in Azerbaijan, ADB Executive Director Anthony Baker said during his visit to Azerbaijan.

"ADB's strategy of development in Azerbaijan for 2014-2018 years, which was agreed with the government, envisages conducting various stimulating measures for the expansion of Azerbaijani banks' possibilities to access the consumer market through microfinance. This will give stimulus to the development of non-cash payments," Baker said, the Taxes Ministry's official paper reported.

He said that the strategy is based on a long-term experience of close cooperation between parties and reflects approaches based on modern economic criteria.

Noting that anti-corruption measures applied in the country in recent years and the creation of e-government serve to reinforce the strength of the economic reforms and governance efficiency, Baker underscored that the cooperation between ADB and Azerbaijan will be continued in the next few years, on the principles of support of the non-oil sector and innovative projects.

He said the ADB experts believe that the creation of a cashless economy is a priority activity sphere in bank's strategy for 2014-2018.

Baker said that the ADB specialists familiarized with the basic provisions of state programs implemented in this sphere, and in the future a special attention will be paid to this sphere in the future cooperation with the banking sector of Azerbaijan.

ADB Executive Director expressed satisfaction with the current state and dynamic development of cashless payments market in Azerbaijan, and highly appreciated the well thought and systematic measures undertaken by the government and state structures in this sphere.

Currently, ADB has seven active projects in Azerbaijan. Its current portfolio hits $990 million. Around 46 percent of the portfolio falls to the transport sector.

According to the bank's updated business plan on operations in Azerbaijan for 2012-2014, the total amount of funding for the ADB approved projects in Azerbaijan in this period will hit $575 million.

Azerbaijan is a member of the ADB since 1999. The country's share in the bank's capital is 0.5 percent.